by Paul Wiseman WASHINGTON  — U.S. consumer prices climbed sharply again last month as the 10-week war with Iran pushed energy prices higher. The Labor Department’s consumer price index rose 3.8% from April 2025, according to data released Tuesday. On a month-to-month basis, April prices rose 0.6% from March as gasoline prices rose 5.4% during the month; the month-over-month gain was down from 0.9% increase from February to March. Grocery prices rose 0.7% from March to April as meat prices rose. Those prices had retreated slightly the month before. “Inflation is the key drag on the U.S. economy now,” Heather…

by Safiyah Riddle and Amy Taxin Libyan Dr. Faysal Alghoula must renew his green card to continue caring for roughly 1,000 patients in southwestern Indiana, but hasn’t been able to since the Trump administration stopped reviewing applications for people from several dozen countries it deemed high-risk. Alghoula’s current visa will expire in September if his application is denied. But last week, the administration quietly made an exemption for medical doctors with pending visa or green card applications, possibly allowing Alghoula’s case to move forward. It’s a move physicians organizations and immigration attorneys had sought for months, citing widespread shortages and…

by Lindsay Whitehurst WASHINGTON — The first baby boomer on the Supreme Court hit a milestone on Thursday, becoming the second-longest serving justice in history at a time when his influence has never seemed greater. Once an outlier on the nation’s highest court, Justice Clarence Thomas has become a towering figure in the conservative legal movement over the last decade as he helped secure landmark rulings on abortion, voting and Second Amendment rights. The only justice with a longer tenure is liberal William O. Douglas. Thomas would overtake Douglas in 2028 if he remains on the court, and there is…

by Travis Loller, Kim Chandler, Jeffrey Collins and Davis A. Lieb NASHVILLE, Tenn.  — Amid raucous protests Thursday, Republicans in Tennessee enacted a new U.S. House map that carves up a majority-Black district in Memphis, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Donald Trump’s strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm elections. The final Senate vote unfolded as demonstrators chanted loudly in the galleries and hallways. Democratic state Sen. Charlane Oliver stood on her desk in the Senate chamber, holding a banner denouncing the redistricting as a “Jim Crow” effort, then clapping…

by Leah Willingham, Jack Brook, Sophie Bates and Jeff Amy JACKSON, Miss. — At 16, Edward Blackmon Jr. was arrested during a protest for voting rights in his Mississippi hometown. He was loaded with schoolmates into a truck once used to haul chickens and was left in the summer heat before spending three nights in an overcrowded jail cell without a bed. It was a moment that set him on a path to become a civil rights lawyer and one of the first Black lawmakers elected in the state since Reconstruction. Blackmon was part of a generation of Black Americans…

by Joseph Omoremi CHICAGO, IL The All Nations Assembly Church (ANAC) and Roseheart Renewal Center are demanding a jury trial in the  five-counts unfair housing discrimination charges against the Village of Olympia Fields before the U.S. District Court, Norther District  in Chicago. The charges occurred after  the Village of Olympia Fields refused to grant a special use permit and map amendment to develop an alcohol and drug rehabilitation center on a 22-acre site at 20300 Governors Highway in Olympia Fields, Illinois.  The defendants which includes the  Village of Olympia Fields, its  Board of Trustees as well as the Plan Commission…

by Eri Tucker, Michael Kunzelman, and Alanna Durkin Richer WASHINGTON  — The man who authorities say tried to storm the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner with guns and knives was charged Monday with the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump as federal authorities suggested an attack that disrupted one of Washington’s glitziest events had been planned for at least several weeks. Cole Tomas Allen appeared in court Monday to face federal charges after the chaotic encounter Saturday that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being hurried off the stage unharmed and guests ducking for cover underneath their tables. He…

by Stefanie Dazio BERLIN — For people living with disabilities, barriers to tourism can range from the obvious — such as an out-of-service elevator — to the unseen, like an outing that’s too long or a setting that’s too loud. As the baby boom generation ages, the travel industry is increasingly catering to older adults with the time and money to sightsee internationally and who sometimes need additional assistance. Truly inclusive accessibility, though, accommodates a much greater range of tourists, from individuals with physical disabilities to people with autism or dementia. To better serve visitors with visible or invisible disabilities,…

by Gene Chamberlain LAKE FOREST, Ill.  — It’s a good thing Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson is regarded as one of the NFL’s elite offensive minds. It’s possible his team could need to put up 30 or more points a game to match last season’s win output after the Bears went through the draft and virtually ignored one of the team’s greatest perceived weaknesses. The Bears failed to draft a defensive end and the only defensive lineman they took was South African Jordan van den Berg of Georgia Tech in the sixth round. That came after the defense finished 27th…

Patrick Donnelly MINNEAPOLIS  — Ayo Dosunmu scored a career-high 43 points, stepping up after leg injuries to Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo with the highest-scoring playoff performance by a reserve in 50 years, and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Denver Nuggets 112-96 on Saturday night. The Timberwolves took a 3-1 lead in the series in a game that ended with the ejections of Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Minnesota’s Julius Randle after Jokic became angry when Jaden McDaniels made a meaningless layup with 2.1 seconds remaining and confronted the Wolves’ swingman near his bench. The story before that was Dosunmu, who…